PHILADELPHIA — The Phillies fought, scrapped and rode the bat of Cody Asche all the way back from a five-run deficit and into extra innings.

However, when it came down to Ben Revere making a 220-foot throw with a little oomph and accuracy in the 10th inning, that was asking way too much.

Edwin Encarnacion’s weak fly ball to right-center field wouldn’t have been enough to get a run home from third base against most outfielders. Fortunately for him and the Blue Jays, Revere’s arm is the type of noodle most South Philly grandmothers would toss in the garbage for not being al dente enough.

The throw got to cutoff man Ryan Howard, but not with nearly enough gas or accuracy for him to give it the green light to the plate. Instead, Howard had to put it in his pocket as Melky Cabrera crossed with the go-ahead run as Toronto escaped with a 6-5 win at Citizens Bank Park Tuesday night.

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In a world where everyone throws the same, it was undoubtedly Revere’s ball. However, right fielder Marlon Byrd — who can actually get a ball from the shallow outfield to home plate on a line or one-hop — could have gotten there for the catch. He deferred, and it’s tough to blame him for that instinct. But if he doesn’t start to take charge on every fly ball with a man on third and less than two outs, Ryne Sandberg might have to start making plans to get Tony Gwynn Jr. and his big-league quality arm in center for these close-and-late situations.

It ruined what had been a nice rally by the Phils after Cole Hamels sputtered through six lackluster innings that weren’t helped by the defense, either.

By the time Toronto tacked on a run in the top of the sixth to go ahead, 5-0, the Phillies seemed dead in the water. They had 21 straight goose-eggs next to their name on the linescore dating to Sunday.

Three straight hits in the sixth inning put an end to the scoring drought. But it wasn’t until Asche smoked his biggest of four hits into the right-field seats for a two-out grand slam that the building came to life.

“I look at this as a possible breakout game for Cody,” Sandberg said. “He played some defense out there. He swung the bat well. He can build on that and feel good about that. He had a great night at the plate, and that’s something he can take forward and build on.”

Asche finished 4-for-4 with a double and the home run. In the last four games he is 7-for-14 with two doubles and two homers, and the pop that has seemed missing from his bat has returned.

“It felt good to produce and help the team out,” said Asche, whose OPS jumped to .767 after starting the day at .643. “There have been a lot of games where I haven’t done that, so it felt good to be one of the nine guys who was helping to contribute.”

Asche got a curtain call from the crowd after the grand slam. He’d have rather had a chance to come out of the dugout to exchange high-fives with teammates after closing out a win.

“I think all losses are the same,” he said. “It’s a loss, a missed opportunity. We had our opportunities there. There were three innings where it was tied and had a couple of plays that we should have made that led to their big inning.”

The play that left them hanging in the 10th was Revere’s sputtering throw — not the first weak offering by him in the late stages of a close game, and until Revere starts coming out of games in that situation, it certainly won’t be his last.